Sri Lanka Telecom, which operates the Mobitel mobile network in Sri Lanka, has reported its Q4 07 Results, which reveal impressive growth to the subscriber base. Quarterly net additions of 288.2k - a company record - took the total number of subscribers to 1.401m at the end of 2007, with proportionate quarterly growth at 25.9%. Although this is slightly below the 28.9% recorded in Q4 06, it is still an excellent result.
Moreover, it constitutes a decisive blow in the keenly contested battle for second place. (MTN Networks, Telecom Malaysia's Sri Lankan subsidiary, is the country's clear market leader with 4.26m customers at the end of 2007.)
Mobitel first gained second place at the end of 2006 thanks to its strong fourth-quarter growth, but its lead over Millicom's Tigo (formerly Celltel Lanka) was a mere 21.8k and Tigo soon recaptured the position it had occupied for over six years. Mobitel sneaked into the lead again at the end of Q3 with an advantage of 23.0k customers, but its impressive Q4 07 performance, combined with Tigo's sluggish 8.4% fourth-quarter growth, has seen it storm ahead. With a year-end lead of 219.6k, Mobitel surely has enough of a cushion to preserve its advantage over Tigo even if its growth in the first half of 2008 is as slow as it was in the first half of 2007. In fact, the greatest challenge in 2008 could come from Hutchison. Just-released figures from HTIL show that Hutchison Lanka was only 40k behind Tigo at the end of 2007, with Q4 representing the fifteenth consecutive quarter that proportionate customer growth has been in double digits.
In annual terms, Mobitel's subscriber base grew 58.3% in 2007 compared to 110.7% in 2006. One of the most significant milestones of 2007 was that the mobile customer base surpassed the fixed customer base for the first time ever, with the total number of fixed customers at 0.932m at the end of the year. Despite the strong growth of mobile customers, annual revenues rose by just 6.2% to Rs. 43.23bn, while EBIT actually fell by 7.2% to 9.35bn.
Posted to the site on 19th March 2008
Mobitel, Tigo and Hutchison Customers, EOP (000)
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